Westwood Village Memorial Park, Frank Zappa’s (1940-1993) grave is also unmarked. It’s grave #100, located about eight yards to the west of Roy Orbison’s grave.

Of all the qualities that typified Frank Zappa, perhaps the most striking is that he was a paradox. A workaholic perfectionist rock star who eschewed the hippie culture of the 1960s, deploring its conformism, spurious ideals, and drug use, Zappa was not only a brilliant rock guitarist, but an orchestral composer, innovative filmmaker, music producer, businessperson, iconoclast, and perceptive political and social commentator. His oeuvre continually amazes: over 60 albums of music from rock to orchestral, in addition to innumerable films, concerts, and other accomplishments.

“It works like this: If you take any kind of a melody, I don’t care if it’s Hawaiian music or whatever, and you play it with a fuzz-tone guitar and a certain kind of a drum beat, people will call it rock ‘n’ roll. But what you’ve got is a Hawaiian song, so how you gonna categorize it?”— Frank Zappa

“He took different styles of music, put them together, and pointed out that there aren’t really rules about them, you know? They’ve been set up, but we don’t have to abide by them.”

“My first recommendation to anyone who hasn’t heard Frank’s music is, listen to Apostrophe (‘) and Over-Night Sensation because it has everything you could ever want. It’s got rock, jazz, funk, the attitude, and the humor all at once.”

Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991, Zappa nonetheless continued working at his Hollywood Hills home, until his death on 4 December 1993. His widow, Gail, and children, Dweezil, Moon, Ahmet, and Diva, soon-after released a statement to the press that simply stated: “Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6pm Saturday.”